HBO Comedy Chief On How Decision To End ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ Came About, Show’s Legacy & Potential Offshoots

After a couple of faux series finales and several multi-year breaks between seasons — including one that lasted six years — it’s no wonder that the most frequent question asked ahead of Curb Your Enthusiasm‘s 12th and final season has been, Is this really the end?

“This time it really feels like it,” HBO‘s head of comedy Amy Gravitt told Deadline at the Curb Season 12 premiere party this week. “This is the most declarative that I’ve experienced it for sure.”

Curb creator, star and executive producer Larry David and fellow executive producer Jeff Schaffer told HBO brass early on that Season 12 would be the comedy’s final chapter.

“As has always been the case, story-breaking led the decision,” Gravitt said. “So, as they were writing, Larry and Jeff called to say the best version is the final version. It’s hard to argue with that!”

Having been at HBO at 20 years, Gravitt has worked on the development of every current comedy series on the network except for Curb, which premiered back in 2000, two years after the end of Seinfeld, the hit NBC sitcom David co-created with Jerry Seinfeld.

The single-camera HBO followup made people cringe while laughing as Larry David, the character played by David on the show, “said the things we’ve always wanted to say but never do,” Gravitt said on stage at the premiere.

While David lives up to his curmudgeon alter ego in his public remarks, he actually likes going his show’s premieres, Gravitt said.

“His favorite part is watching the show in the crowd,” she said. “He loves watching the episodes.”

Looking back at Curb’s legacy, “I think it’s always been a Northstar for us,” Gravitt said. “There are so many people that’ve come in who have either worked on the show, proven themselves on the show, or somebody like Issa [Rae], shares as much DNA with Larry, as do some other shows that people keep referencing. Having a strong writer-performer at the center of the show, having those tightly spun episodic stories, I think it really set the bar for what a comedies can be.”

As Curb is coming to an end, is David interested in potential spinoffs?

“I don’t think so, I think he is serious this time,” Gravitt said about David leaving the Curb world behind.

The writer-comedian also has not spoken to HBO about another series to follow Curb but the network would be game.

“I would love that,” Gravitt said.

Curb‘s final season premiers Sunday, Feb. 4, on HBO and Max.